AttoMap-310
XRF Microscope
Highest resolution XRF on the market Ambient and Vacuum (low-Z)
Award Winning (Microscopy Today)
Key Advantages:
All the benefits of the AttoMap-200:
- Highest resolution laboratory microXRF
Achieve down to single digit microns (3-5 µm) - Sub-ppm sensitivity
Quantify down to sub parts per million (ppm) levels with Sigray’s flexible software packages - Energy tunability
Maximize throughput and sensitivity with up to 5 different incident x-ray spectra
Plus, advances exclusive to the AttoMap-310, including:
- Achieves shallow angle imaging for thin samples (e.g., biological) and/or diffraction removal
AttoMap-310 features a goniometer to enable normal to shallow angle of incidence imaging - Light element detection
Analyze down to trace-level organics within the AttoMap’s high vacuum chamber
Highest Resolution of any XRF Microscope on the Market
Micro x-ray fluorescence (microXRF) as a technique provides excellent sensitivity for compositional analysis, with sensitivities typically 1000X that of electron-based spectroscopy (ppm vs. ppt). The major limitation for laboratory-based microXRF has been the spot sizes achievable, which are typically around 20-50 µm. Sigray AttoMap achieves the highest spatial resolutions available on the order of single digit micrometers (3-5 µm) through the use of Sigray’s proprietary x-ray focusing optics. These x-ray focusing optics are much higher in efficiency and produce far smaller spot sizes than the polycapillary optics used by other laboratory microXRFs.
Sub-ppm Sensitivities (Sub-Femtogram)
AttoMap achieves unprecedented sensitivities at absolute detection limits of sub-femtogram and relative detection limits of sub-parts per million. This enables microscopy of trace element distributions at good throughput. The system’s accuracy and speed are why the AttoMap has been adopted by leading semiconductor companies for monitoring processes involving trace-level dopants.
Energy Tunability for High Throughput and Sensitivities
X-ray fluorescence is highly dependent on the energy of the illuminating x-ray beam. Fluorescence cross-sections can vary by several orders of magnitude, as can be seen in the corresponding table of a select number of elements. Sigray’s AttoMap-310 provides easy software-selection of up to 5 target materials, including exotic target materials such as a silicon-based source and a gold-based source, to ensure the ultimate sensitivity for a broad range of elements. Other x-ray sources are limited to only a single x-ray target material, which only allows maximizing the sensitivity and throughput for a subset of materials.
A visual depiction of how significant the impact of energy tunability through x-ray source target selection can be seen in the image below, comparing an arsenopyrite sample imaged using a tungsten (W) target and a molybdenum (Mo) target.
Shallow Angle Imaging for Biological, Geological, and Semiconductor Samples
A key feature on the AttoMap-310 is its incorporation of a goniometer stage that allows for a wide range of incidence angles from normal incidence (90 degrees) to near-grazing (3 degrees) incidence. This provides a number of advantages. For thin samples such as tissue sections or thin films, the imaging can be vastly improved at shallower x-ray incidence angles because the x-ray interaction volume increases and the background is substantially reduced. For crystalline samples (e.g., silicon wafers), diffraction peaks can be completely avoided.
Light Element Detection
AttoMap-310 provides detection of elements down to B and enables trace-level (<1%) quantification of organics such as C, O, N. This is accomplished through the system’s incorporation of a specialized low energy detector and a vacuum enclosure that achieves evacuated environments of better than 10^-4 Torr. The system can also be run in ambient mode for maximum flexibility.
For more information on AttoMap specifically for semiconductor elements, please download the applications below:
System Features
- Patented high brightness x-ray source with 50X brightness over those used in other leading microXRF systems and provides up to 5 different spectra in a single source
- Mirror Lens x-ray optics with major advantages over conventional polycapillary microXRF systems
- Goniometer stage for variable angle imaging (3 to 90 degrees)
- Vacuum enclosure that achieves down to <10^-4 Torr
- Wide range of flexible and intuitive software routines, from mineralogy to semiconductor-focused wafer pattern navigation, flexible and customizable Jupyter notebooks, and fundamental parameters analysis for weight percentages
Patented Multi-Target Ultrahigh Brightness X-ray Source
Sigray’s x-ray source, when combined with the x-ray optics, has over 50X the brightness over the illumination beam (source + optics) systems employed by other leading microXRF systems. The source accomplishes this through a patented design in which multiple target materials are in optimal thermal contact with diamond, which has excellent thermal conductivity properties. The rapid cooling of diamond enables higher power loading on the x-ray source to produce an intense beams of x-rays. This thermal benefit enables more materials to be used as x-ray source target materials, each of which produce strong characteristic x-rays of a specific energy. Up to 5 target materials can be customized for the AttoMap-310 source, allowing software selection of the optimal spectra for your sample. The power of energy tunability can be clearly seen in the example shown previously.
Mirror Lens: Double Paraboloidal X-ray Optics
The focusing x-ray optic rivals the x-ray source in importance to the performance of any microXRF system. Sigray is the leading producer of x-ray optics and only producer capable of fabricating the mirror lens x-ray imaging optics used in the AttoMap systems. Other microXRF systems use polycapillary optics to guide x-rays onto a spot at the sample.
Sigray’s mirror lens overcomes several major drawbacks of polycapillaries, including their limited depth-of-field and chromatic aberrations. AttoMap’s larger depth-of-field enables high resolution imaging of samples that cannot be finely polished to a flat surface and/or have topography. The lack of chromatic aberrations also enables superior quantification because there is only a single spot producing x-rays on the sample (when chromatic aberration is present, different x-ray energies are focused to different diameters on the sample, making it challenging to determine where the x-rays are produced).
Goniometer Stage
AttoMap-310 can achieve near-grazing incidences on samples. This maximizes solid angle of collection of the detector and the x-ray interaction with thin samples, leading to substantially faster acquisition times. By rotating the sample through a patent-pending approach called Computed Laminography X-ray Fluorescence Imaging (CL-XRFI), high resolution can be achieved even when acquiring at low incidence angles. Another benefit of variable angle acquisitions is that diffraction peaks from crystalline materials, such as silicon wafers, can be completely avoided.
Vacuum Enclosure
AttoMap-310 is enclosed in vacuum chamber capable of environments down to below 10^-4 Torr. This is critical for trace-level (<1%) quantification of low atomic number elements, such as organic contaminants. In comparison, systems with lower vacuum or helium environments can only detect large concentrations of organic materials because the low x-ray energies of these elements (for example, carbon is only 282 eV) are quickly attenuated by the presence of even a small number of atoms between the sample and the detector.
Software
AttoMap-200 comes with a suite of extendable and intuitive software. The software provides different advantages, depending on the application of interest:
- Semiconductor: Automated pattern recognition on wafers enables high throughput recipe-based point analysis on wafers.
- Geology: Mineralogical classification through an AI-based clustering algorithm to segment grains and identify their mineralogy based on the elemental composition.
- Materials Science and Life Sciences: Weight percentage through both standards-based and standardless fundamental parameters analysis through a GUI interface. Sigray also provides Jupyter notebooks customized for quantification routines of interest and can be easily extended or modified by users with some understanding of Python.
Software functions include: Single and multi-file analysis, spectral fitting and deconvolution, fundamental parameter (FP) model implementation for standard-less quantification, relative weight percentage calculations using the FP model, spectral clustering using machine learning, spectral decompositions, optical and fluorescence image overlay, and open-box extensibility.
Applications
Mineralogy
Automated mineralogy using scanning electron microscope (SEM) has become a dominant approach used in natural resource exploration and process monitoring. AttoMap provides a powerful complement to SEM-based mineralogy approaches by providing 1000X the sensitivity of SEM-EDS for trace elemental mapping. The system’s intuitive software provides AI-based grain segmentation and mineralogical identification. AttoMap-310 also provides unprecedented sensitivity for light elements, such as B, C, O, N, P, etc.
Life Sciences and Metallomics
AttoMap was originally designed for life science research with support of NIH funding. Applications in the life sciences include studying pathologies (e.g., cancer and Wilson’s Disease) that are hypothesized to be related to dysregulation of trace elements such as iron and copper, the distribution of nanoparticle-based therapeutics after injection, and environmental uptake of contaminants.
Semiconductor
AttoMap has been adopted by leading semiconductor companies for monitoring dopants and ultrathin films on test patterns. The system also provides trace-level measurements of organic contaminants and low atomic number (Z) materials such as B within its vacuum environment. Residue of key semiconductor elements, such as TiN, Ge, Al, and Mo2N can be analyzed at extremely high sensitivities within a test pad with AttoMap’s navigation software that features optical pattern recognition for unsupervised, recipe-based acquisition of points. Details are provided in this applications note.
Environmental / Botany
Synchrotron XRF has become a technique of choice for many plant scientists for understanding element distribution. Such studies include metal uptake for photoremediation (reclaiming the environment), nutrient uptake, and genetically modified plants for desirable characteristics such as drought-resistance and improvement to nutritional content.
Contaminants and Impurities in Industrial Processes (e.g., Batteries)
AttoMap is the highest resolution (e.g., 5 micrometers vs. 20+ micrometers) and highest sensitivity microXRF on the market. This allows it to uniquely resolve microns-scale impurities that can catastrophic, such as Fe impurities in battery electrodes. As reported in Cell Report Physical Science, AttoMap was successfully used to localize small particles of Zr, Hf, Cr, Fe, Cu, and Zn in a battery electrode.
Technical Specifications of the AttoMap-310
| Parameter | Specification | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | Spatial Resolution | Down to 3-5 μm with high resolution optic. 7-10 μm with standard optics. |
| Sensitivity | Sub-ppm relative detection sensitivity. Picogram to femtogram absolute sensitivity. | |
| Variable Angle Acquisition | 3 degrees (near-grazing) to 90 degrees (normal) in 0.01 degree increments. | |
| Source | Type | Sigray patented ultrahigh brightness sealed microfocus source |
| Target(s) | Up to 5 targets. Includes selection from Si, Cr, Cu, Rh, W, Mo, Au, Ti, Ag. Others available upon request. |
|
| Power | Voltage | 50W | 20-45 kVp | |
| X-ray Optic | Type | Sigray proprietary double paraboloidal x-ray mirror lens |
| Transmission Efficiency | ~80% | |
| Magnification | 1:1 magnification default Demagnifying optics for higher resolution available upon request |
|
| Interior Coating | Platinum for increasing collection efficiency of optic | |
| X-ray Detector | Type | SDD Detector |
| Energy Resolution | <129 eV at Mn-Ka | |
| Dimensions | Footprint | 54" W x 65.5" H x 38.5" D |
| Stage Travel | 120 x 100 mm (upgrades available upon request) | |
| Additional Capabilities | Other Modalities | Integrated optical microscope and x-ray microscope for alignment |
| Software | Sigray Composition (GUI-based analysis tool) Semiconductor Acquisition Jupyter notebooks available upon request |
Downloads
Brochures and Specification Sheets
Application Notes
Semiconductor Dopants and Residues (such as Ge, Mo2N, Al, etc.) with AttoMap
Contact Us
Interested in how the Sigray AttoMap™ will help your particular application?
For a quotation and to inquire about a demonstration of the system on your particular research interests, please fill out the following inquiry form and we will get back to you within 1-2 business days.